Police: Truck Driver Stole, Transported 111 Guns

82 Remain On The Streets, Police Said

STRATFORD — A truck driver for a local freight company faces hundreds of charges after he allegedly stole 111 handguns from Smith & Wesson and off-loaded them in Bridgeport.

Elliot Perez also sold some of the guns, as did a man named Michael Murphy, Stratford police stated in a press release. Perez and Murphy were arrested Friday as a result of an investigation that included Bridgeport police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, police said Monday.

"I just want to get the rest of the guns," Gugliotti said. Investigators hope to get cooperation from people in the community who may know the whereabouts of the weapons, he said.

According to police, Perez, a tractor trailer truck driver for Pace Motor Lines on Honeyspot Road, stole 111 handguns from the Smith & Wesson plant in Springfield Nov. 8. He transported the guns to Bridgeport, where he took them off the truck, they said.

He and Murphy sold an unknown number of guns on the street, police said.

Perez was charged with 111 counts of theft of a firearm and criminal possession of a firearm, police said. He also was charged with one count each of illegal sale of a firearm, transfer of a firearm by a ineligible person and five counts of weapon in a motor vehicle.

He was in custody on $500,000 bail and was scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court in Bridgeport later Monday.

Murphy was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit and theft of a firearm. He posted $10,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 6, police said.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact the Stratford police at 203-385-4119, the Stratford tip hotline at 203-375-8477 (TIPS) or the ATF at 203-773-2060.